Texas A&M SPE: A History of Excellence

Texas A&M SPE: A History of Excellence

A Walk Down Memory Lane

Written by Meaghan Anderson

As members of our organization learned a few years ago in 2015, the Texas A&M Society of Petroleum Engineers has been around much longer than students originally thought. While the student organization did not officially become affiliated with SPE until 1978, some alumni dated its origins back to 1932 with the founding of the Petroleum Engineering-Geology Club and others even further to when the degree became available at Texas A&M in 1928.

The beginnings of SPE itself stems back to when it began as a society within the American Institute of Mining Engineers (1957) before becoming its own independent organization in 1985, and even from its early years, Texas A&M was leaving its mark with a legacy of 6 SPE Presidents starting in 1968 with Mr. H. J. Gruy ’68. Currently, Mrs. Janeen Judah ’81 serves as the 2017 SPE President, and two current faculty members serve on the 2017 SPE Board of Directors—Dr. Dan Hill ‘74, Department Head, serves as the Director for Academia, and Dr. Tom Blasingame ’74, Professor and our SPE Student Chapter Sponsor, serves as the Reservoir Description and Dynamics Technical Director. Another interesting fact about our school’s relationship with SPE, Texas A&M University also hosted SPE’s website, SPE.org, when it went live in 1995.

The new generation of Aggie Petroleum Engineers has a lot to live up to, but with our proud history and legacy to guide us, I have no doubts we will continue to prove our excellence to the oil and gas industry.

SPE Presidents, Texas A&M Alumni:

2017—Janeen Judah ‘81

2014—Jeff Spath ‘84

2002—Stephen A. Holditch ‘69

1972—M. Scott Kraemer ‘43

1970—Robert H. McLemore ‘33

1968—H. J. Gruy ‘37

Texas A&M University and SPE Student Chapter Awards

For an impressive third year in a row, Texas A&M University’s SPE Student Chapter will again receive the Outstanding Student Chapter Award at the Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, this year to be held in San Antonio. The history of the Texas A&M SPE Student Chapter matches Texas A&M University’s core value of excellence, and the proof is shown in our impressive history of winning the SPE Outstanding Student Chapter Award. This will be the twelfth time the award is given to the chapter, not to mention the 5 Gold Standard Awards given to the chapter. Texas A&M SPE even won Outstanding Student Chapter the first year the award was given, in 1995. Texas A&M Qatar and Texas A&M Kingsville chapters have also been awarded for their excellence—Texas A&M Qatar has won the Outstanding Student Chapter Award 3 times, including 2017, and Texas A&M Kingsville has won the Gold Standard Award twice, also in 2017.

More than just recognition, the Outstanding Student Chapter Award is a testament to the dedication of every member, from President all the way to the General Members that make up one of the largest student organizations at Texas A&M. The sheer size of our organization requires our board, directors, and committees to work together like a well-oiled machine, but we would not be able to without the officers who give so much of their time and energy into making Texas A&M SPE the world-class organization it is. In 2017, we were led by the following exceptional students who helped us achieve yet another year of outstanding accomplishments:

President: Alex Lambros

Vice President: Courtney Walker

Treasurer: Ben Bates

Secretary: Jordan Argamany

GraduateRepresentative: Hanyu Li

The Outstanding Student Chapter Award is the highest honor given to a chapter, so to win this distinguished honor a chapter must be considered truly exemplary. In the selection process, a student chapter is graded in five different areas including industry engagement, operations and planning, community involvement, professional development, and innovation. The Gold Standard Award is another award our chapter has received on multiple occasions, and this is given to “student chapters that have accomplished an admirable level of activity.” For more information, on these SPE Awards and to see other recipients, please visit www.spe.org/chapters/awards.php.